In a decision he “agonized over,” Chris Carlson has stepped down as UC San Diego men’s basketball coach to become associate commissioner of the West Coast Conference.

UCSD athletic director Earl Edwards named Eric Olen, a Tritons assistant for the past nine seasons, as the new head coach.

“It was not an easy decision because UC San Diego is a very, very special place,” said the popular Carlson, a Helix High alum who worked on Ben Howland’s staff at Pittsburgh and UCLA before replacing Bill Carr at UCSD six years ago. “I was not looking to leave. I’m a San Diegan at heart. I’m from here. I love the university. People treated me well here.

“(The WCC) approached me, and from a professional standpoint it was too great an opportunity to pass up.”

Carlson’s official title is associate commissioner for men’s basketball and sport administration, in which, a WCC release says, he will “take a strategic approach to enhancing the conference’s most visible sport.” He will be based at the WCC office in San Bruno, just south of San Francisco.

“I know the timing wasn’t necessarily what I would have liked,” said Carlson, who informed his players Monday. “But I feel very strongly about Eric’s leadership and the state of the program going forward.”

Carlson was 75-89 in six years at UCSD, including the school’s first CCAA tournament title and trip to the NCAA Division II playoffs in 2008. The Tritons return point guard James McCann and eight others from a team that went 11-15 and qualified for the conference tournament.

Olen played at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala., and was part of teams that reached the NAIA National Tournament three times. After graduation in 2004, he joined Carr’s staff at UCSD.